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SERMON, 

PKEACnED BEFORE THE 

COXGREGATIONAL CHUROn AND SOCIETr IN GREEN'S FARMS, CONN 
OX THE DAY OP THE NATIONAL FAST, 

OCCASIOiVEU BY THE DEATH 



President of the United States, 

J-CrKTE 1st, 186S, 

By REV. B. J. RELYEA, 



JNO. P. PRALL, PRTNTEPv P-Y STEAJI, No. •) SPRUCE-STREET. 

vj^ 18G5. M., 



THE nsT-A-Tioisr's i^oxjFLisrxisrG: 



SERMON, 

PREACHED BEFORE THE 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN GREEN'S FARMS, CONN. 
ON THE DAY OF THE NATIONAL FAST, 

OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH" 



PreaiJent of the United States, 

J-CJJSTH] 1st, 1SG3. 

By REV. B. J. RELYEA, 

r A STOK. 



JNO. P. PRALL, PRINTER I'-Y STEAM, No. 9 SPRUCE-STREET. 
18G5. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Green's Farms, June 5th, 18G5. 
Rev. Mr. Relyea, — 

Deal' Sir : In accordance with the general and often repeated wish of your 
congregation, on Fast Day, we would respectfully request the publication of 
your sermon, delivered on that occasion. We believe it to be timely, instruc- 
tive, well fitted to be useful, and well worthy of permanent preservation. 
Yours affectionately, 

E. B. ADAMS. 
JOHN S. HYDE. 

E. J. TAYLOR. 

S. B. SHERWOOD. 
.JARVIS JENNINGS. 
H. B. WAKEMAN. 
J. B. ELWOOD. 
T. B. WAKEMAN. 
DANIEL BURR. 

F. SUMNER. 



REPLY. 

Green's Farms, June 7th, 1865. 
Deacon E. B. Adams and oxnERS, — 
Gentlemen : 
Your note of the 5th inst. has been handed to me. The sermon to 
which you refer, was written hastily in the ordinary course of preparation 
for the pulpit, without the remotest thought of its being published. My 
individual preference would lead me to decline giving it to the public in the 
form you suggest ; but I find it difficult to refuse compliance with the re- 
quest of a people from whom so many tokens of kiiidness have been re- 
ceived. I therefore place it at your disposal, and you are at liberty to 
make such use of it as you may think proper. In doing so, I have the sat- 
isfaction of feeling fully assured that it contains no sentiments but such as 
are held in common by the members of this society, who though in some 
respects they may differ in political sentiments, yet have had enough of 
good sense to maintain harmony among themselves, and enough of patriot- 
ism not to shrink from their full share of the burdens and sacrifices neces- 
sary to preserve unimpaired the authority of our national government. 
Very sincerely, and with much esteem, yours, 

B. J. RELYEA. 



SERMON, 



*' Auil allJudah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiali." 

II Chron; XXXV. '24. 

In every great bereavement, whether individual or national, 
the benefit to be derived results not from the first ebulition of 
painful and sorrowful feeling, but from the subduing influence 
of after reflection. In the first moments of grief our minds are 
filled with a tumult of emotions which renders us for the time 
incapable of fully comprehending the meaning of the event — 
of measuring the interests affected by it, or of learning, the 
lessons which it teaches. It is only when time and nature have 
come to the aid of reason, and given calmness to our minds, 
that we are able to indulge in such meditations as sliall suita- 
blj impress the heart and influence the life. 

It is eminently appropriate, therefore,' that such a day as 
this should have been set apart in view of that event which 
has filled the nation's heart with sorrow ; and it is well that 
it should have been deferred to this distance of time. The first 
bewilderment of the sudden and stunning blow — the tumult of 
excited and conflicting emotions which struggled in the national 
mind — the roll of muffled drums — tlic tolling of bells — the 
solemn tramp of civic and military processions, witli all tlie 
pomp and pageantry of a nation's woe, have passed away. And 



6 

we shall be able perhaps more calmly to view the bereavement 
and to consider the lessons which it teaches. 

The most striking and showy demonstrations of^-ricf are 
not always indicative of deepest and most lasting sorrow. I 
have learned seriously to doubt the depth and sincerity of the 
man's real, self-denying patriotism, who finds it necessary to 
be always giving some marked proof or protestation of his 
loyalty. I put such an one down as having either a soft head 
or an unsound heart. So in the case of national bereavement. 
It is not the most ostentatious display of grief that is always 
most genuine. Great depth of feeling is not apt to be over 
demonstrative. Deep waters flow with a comparatively calm 
and quiet surface. Shallow streams are always most boister- 
ous. When a man is found babbling of his own great sorrow, 
and lamenting the want of it in others, generally you do not 
greatly err in esteeming him to be one of those shallow streams 
— a man whose feelings lie very much on the surface, and not 
likely to be greatly benefitted by the affliction. 

Neither is it true that the first outburst of uncontrollable 
feeling, however real, is always followed by that permanent 
improvement of character without which affliction fails to ac- 
complish its end. You have sometimes witnessed instances of 
individual or family bereavement, in which the first tumult of 
emotion seemed for the time ungovernable ; yet in the course 
of a few months, or even weeks, the whole current of their 
thoughts and of their lives was as vain and frivolous as if no 
such affliction had befallen them. You have witnessed other 
instances of affliction borne with comparative serenity, and 
with little outward demonstration, which has, nevertheless, 
left its mellowing and subduing influence upon the whole after 
life. Thus in national bereavement. While a solemn and be- 



coming- respect for the nation's dead, and a suitable regard for 
the forms and manifestations of sadness are always eminently 
fit and proper, it is well to remember that true sorrow docs not 
consist in the trappings and decorations of mourning, but iti a 
heart contrite and bowed down with grief. The benefits of 
affliction are not derived from transient feeling, however vio- 
lent, but from calm reflection, and the abiding, dccp-toned 
impression left upon the mind. 

It is evident, from the following history, that the general 
mourning of the Jewish nation, on the occasion referred to in 
the text, partook very much of this ostentatious and evanescent 
haracter — that it was not accompanied by repentance of 
heart, nor followed by any lasting improvement in their way 
of life. 

On the death of Josiah there was indeed occasion for great 
lamentation and mourning. More than people at the time were 
aware of. lie was a man of extraordinary virtue and piety. 
He shone as a star of the purest lustre in a corrupt and degen- 
erate ago. Soon after he had ascended the throne he set about 
the reformation of manners and religion. lie destroyed idola- 
try throughout the land. He brake down their idols and their 
altars, and defiled them with dead men's bones. He repaired 
the Temple and reinstated the pure worship of God. He 
mourned and wept because of the sins of the people. He caus- 
ed the nation to assemble and renew their vows and their 
covenant with God. 

Because of all tliis God was pleased to make known to him, 
through Iluldah the i)rophetcsp, that he would defer his anger, 
and postpone for his sake the wrath which had been determined 
upon that people until Josiah should have been gathered to 
his fathers. So that Josiah, as tlieir king, really stood be- 



8 

twcen the nation and tlicir coming destruction, when he was 
suddenly cut down — slain in battle. They brought him to 
Jerusalem, where he died, and was buried ; " and all Judah 
and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah," and made great larlienta- 
tion over him. 

But their great mourning was of a transient and evan- 
escent character, followed by no good results. Scarcely had 
he been laid in his sepulchre, and the funeral obsequies ceased, 
before the reforms which he had instituted disappeared. The 
people relapsed into their idolatry and wickedness, growing 
worse and worse. In the language of the inspired writer, 
" They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, 
and misused bis prophets, until the wrath of tlie Lord arose 
against his people till there was no remedy." In a little more 
than twenty years, notwithstanding their great mourning for 
this good king, Josiah, their sins had reached a point which 
could be endured no longer. By One sweep of destruction 
their land was made desolate, and the remnant of the people 
who escaped the sword were borne away into captivity. Thus 
we see there was, indeed, greaf occasion for mourning, and all 
Judah and Jerusalem did mourn, but their mourning was not 
such as tended to any permanently good results. 

With a view, then, to a more abiding impression, and a 
more lasting improvement of this afflictive dispensation of 
Providence, let us proceed to notice the occasion which we as 
a nation this day have to mourn, and some of the lessons which 
this bereavement should teach us. 

1st. There is occasion for mourning because it is the 
executive head of the nation — the representative of the law 
and of the authority of the Government, who has fallen. The 
inquiry might arise, perhaps, in the minds of some who have 



not duly considered the subject, What Tv^as Abraham Lincoln 
more than others, that a whole nation should mourn his death ? 
I answer, simply in himself, in his own person as a citizen of our 
common country, he was no more than thousands of others ; but 
in his official capacity he was more than others, and more than 
others to every inhabitant of the land. Why is the American 
flag more to us than any other similar product of the loom ? 
Not because of the richness of its texture or the costliness of 
the fabric of which it is made, but because throughout the 
world it is the chosen emblem of the nation's sovereignty and 
independence, and at home it is the representative of the nation's 
authority. To vindicate its hoaor, and to maintain its suprem- 
acy, whether at home or abroad, every patriot is ready, if need 
to be, to lay down his life and his fortune. So with him who 
for the time was chosen to rule over us as our chief magistrate, 
he represented the majesty of the law and the authority of the 
nation. In the providence of God, and by the will of the na- 
tion, expressed in strict accordance with all the forms of con- 
stitutional law, he was called out from the multitude of his 
equals, constituted the head of the Government, and clothed 
with the nation's authority and power. He was the embodi- 
ment of the nation's majesty, for its goverument and for its 
protection. Since human governments began on earth, if there 
ever was a man lawfully and rightfully constituted a ruler 
over men, he was rightfully and lawfully the chief ruler in this 
land. The highest were justly amenable to his executive au- 
thority ; the lowest had a claim upon him for protection ; and 
all had a right to demand of him that the integrity of the Gov- 
ernment and the authority of law bo maintained. In his 
official capacity, he stood in a different relation to every one 
of us from that which he occupied before, and in a different 



10 

relation from that of any other man for the time. By the na- 
tion's act he was taken out from the general relation of a sim- 
ple citizen of a common country and placed in a personal rela- 
tion to every one of us as our ruler. All the reverence and 
obedience which by laws, human and divine, are due to human 
rulers any where, were due to him, not merely as Abraham 
Lincoln but as the representative of the nation's authority. 
All the loyalty and allegiance which are due to human govern- 
ments any where were due to this Government, as embodied 
and represented in his official person. 

Human government is not a thing in the abstract. If it 
exists as a reality, it must exist as represented in living 
men, placed in a position to wield its power and give it 
efficiency. The idea of law or government unrepresented in 
men, not embodied in particular persons charged with the ex- 
ercise of the functions of such government, is a mere theory. 
Allegiance or loyalty to a mere abstract theory is an impossi- 
bility. If a man, therefore, will be loyal, he must be loyal to 
the government as represented in the persons of those who are 
its regularly constitued rulers- When, therefore, we did hom- 
age to him in life, it was not merely to him as Abraham Lin- 
coln, but to him as the nation's representative. When we hon- 
or him in death, it is not as a citizen of the State of Illinois, 
•nor as a citizen of the United States of America, but as the 
President of the United States — the man who wielded the 
power, and embodied in his person the majesty and the author- 
ity of a great and free people. There is not an inhabitant of 
this broad land that ought not, nor is there a loyal and right- 
minded one that does not, feel in his death an individual afflic- 
tion, a personal bereavement. God in his afflictive providence 
has come near to everv one of us. He has laid his hand on a 



11 

point which touches each member of the nation, and we ought 
to feel it. He has spoken in tones that should vibrate in ^ery 
heart. 

In the eye of divine law there is .something sacred in the 
person of a ruler, not merely in the office but in the person of 
him to whom the ofiice inheres. Ue is the minister of God, 
ordained of him ; a revenger to execute wrath upon him that 
doth evil ; and in the death of such an one there is a marked 
and special providence to every individual of the nation. Nor 
is the obligation to regard it to be evaded by the consideration 
that the office and the prerogative is readily transmitted to 
another equally competent and worthy. You might as well 
say a man is excused from mourning on account of the death 
of his wife, or is under no obligation to consider the chastise- 
ment of God upon his house in such death, because it is pos- 
sible for him to obtain another wife equally good. What I 
insist upon is, that this is a national bereavement. In permit- 
ting this blow to fall upon the head of the nation, God has 
caused his judgment to rest upon the nation, and upon every 
individual of it. And it becomes all of us to mourn, and to 
humble ourselves before him in penitent sorrow. 

I dwell upon this the more because in our heated party con- 
troversies we have not always suitably regarded the sacredness 
of the persons of those who actually rule over us,, nor the divine 
sanctions which to them personally commands our loyalty, 
reverence, and obedience. This is one of our sin? as a nation, 
and one of the principal causes of all those calamities which 
have befallen us. It is. I believe, one of the lessons which 
God, by his fierce judgments, is burning into the nation's con- 
science. Happy will it be for us if wc so mourn as that the influ- 
ence of this lesson shall be permanently felt in the nation's life. 



12 

2cL In this afflictive dispensation there is great occasion 
for mourning on account of the pereonal character of him who 
is thus suddenly stricken from the head of our national affairs. 
When the head of a family is removed by death, it is, and 
ought to be, regarded as a divine chastisement to that family — 
an occasion for mourning, repentance and humiliation before 
God ; and it adds greatly to the sense of bereavement if he 
was a wise, provident and good father. So when the head of 
a nation is smitten down, it ought to be felt to be a divine 
judgment, a national affliction. Especially is it an occasion 
for mourning if he of whom the nation be bereaved be a man 
possessed of those qualities of mind and heart which adapt him 
to the office, and to the situation of the country. It is no part 
of my present purpose to pronounce a penegyric on the charac- 
ter of him whom the nation has just honored with such extra- 
ordinary and unexampled obsequies, and such tokens of re- 
spect. Nothing in his life or history is known to me which 
is not equally well known to every one of you. I need not, 
therefore, recount his deeds. At this period of time, as we 
look back upon his finished career, it will not be denied that 
he possessed many of the qualifications of a wise and good 
ruler. 

His intellectual abilities, certainly, were not of that showy 
and brilliant order which is apt to captivate the imaginations 
of men. He was not learned, perhaps, in all the intricacies of 
diplomacy nor in all the refinements of State craft. It will not 
be doubted, however, but that he possessed in a good degree 
that wisdom which goes by the more homely and less imposing 
name of good practical common sense, which, accompanied as 
it was in him, with honesty of heart and singleness of purpose, 
is certainly of infinitely more importance for all the just ends 



13 

of government. If it is any proof of abiliiy for a man to 
accomplish wliat ouc-lialf of the civilized world for four yjcars 
strciniously affirmed never could be done — if this is any proof 
of ability, then certainly he has given us some proof of ability. 
I would not detract anything from the honor and the well- 
earned fame of those men who have bravely fought on the field 
of battle, yet surely much of the credit of calling forth and 
directing the resources of the nation in such manner as to 
bring this war to a successful and triumphant conclusion is due 
to him. 

I am not anxious to place myself in that class of persons 
who are always wise after the event, and who are always ready 
to say, " I knew it would be so.*" In those times of repeated 
defeat and disaster on the field of battle, and of confusion and 
disaffection at home — in those days of darkness and national 
despondency, I confess to have shared the doubt whether he 
possessed the nerve and the mental stamina which would enable 
him to master the situation and control the elements with 
whicli he had to deal. He was yet, in this respect, an untried 
man, and the question could only be determined by the event. 
But looking back now upon the period of this great conflict, 
it must be confessed, that surrounded with difficulties as great 
as those which ever beset the ruler of any country, he has shown 
himself equal to the work which was given him to do. 

I have no occasion now to discuss the princip]^s and com- 
plicated questions involved in the controversies of political 
l)arties which led to the terrible conflict which has desolated so 
large a portion of our land, and carried mourning and grief 
into so many homes. And I might as well take this occasion 
to say, that in my ministry here I have refrained from all polit- 
ical controversy. This I liave done designedly and intention- 



14 

ally, not from fear or favor, but from honest principle ; from a 
regard to the harmony, the peace, and the religious welfare of 
this society, from a thorough conviction that it was altogether 
outside of my province, and that no possible good could result 
from any other course. And I feel bound frankly to tell you, 
that if any insist upon having that kind of work done here, the 
sooner they get some one else to do it the better it will be for 
you and for me. I have now certainly no occasion to discuss 
the principles involved in the controversies of the past. I 
think I can understand how men may differ in regard to them 
and be honest, loyal, Christian men notwithstanding. 

It will not be doubted, however, but that he whom now we 
mourn did represent the opinions of the majority of the nation. 
If any think that he was wrong in his opinions, still a man is 
not to be harshly judged or hastily condemned for holding sen- 
timents which are entertained by a majority of the people of a 
great and free Eepublic. The basis of all free government 
being that the will of the majority shall rule, and he having 
been placed in a position to represent and give efficiency to 
that will of the majority, it must be confessed that up to the 
moment of his death he had borne the country through its 
trials with as few mistakes as we had any right to expect from 
any one whose wisdom was not more than human. 

But one who is called to rule over a nation, especially in 
such times, *has need of other qualifications than those of intel- 
lectual ability, and he was not deficient in them. It was the 
qualities of the heart rather than of the head which gave him 
that hold of the nation's mind which it must be acknowledged 
he really did possess. 

In the judgment of mankind — in the sentiments of the 
civilized world, he stands to-day acquitted of any of that sor- 



15 

did and personal ambition which seeks individual aggrandize- 
ment and dominion at the expense of national liberties. 
However jealous men may have been of that almost absolute 
power which the necessities of the war placed into his hands 
we have all lived to feel that in the whole exercise of it he was 
guided by an integrity of heart, an honesty of purpose, and a 
ingleness of aim, which have placed him above suspicion ; and 
withal there was a frankness of manner which rendered him 
incapable of duplicity — there was a genial temper and an im- 
perturbable good nature which never forsook him in the most 
vexatious and trying circumstances ; and a kindness of heart 
to wliich tlie oppressed and the wronged never pleaded in vain. 
Amid all this sea of human blood — amid all this turbulence of 
human passion, and all this anguish, which has wrung the na- 
tion's heart, on his escutcheon there is not left one stain of 
blood-thirstiness — there is not left the taint of one deed of dis- 
honor, of wanton cruelty, or of revenge. As I look back 
upon the past, as I view that conflict of opinions which, witli- 
out an entire change in, the moral character of the nation, ren- 
dered a conflict of arms inevitable — as I trace the progress of 
the fearful strife, fraught with so many • dangers to the coun- 
try's future, affording just tlie opportunity which a Cii3sar or a 
Napoleon would have coveted to build an empire on the ruins 
of the Republic — as I consider all this, I cannot but find occa- 
sion for devout gratitude to Almighty God that he gave us 
[;uch a man for such a time. Now when such a ruler is sud- 
denly stricken down, every right-minded person, whatever may 
be his political sentiments, cannot but feel that it is a national 
calamity, a divine clmstiscment, an occasion for sorrow, mourn- 
ing, and repentance to a whole people. I cannot resist the con- 
viction that one of the lessons which God is teaching us by all 



16 

these terrible dealings is, that we be less bitter in our party 
spirit — that we be less harsh in our judgments of those who 
are called to rule over us, and less severe in our condemnation 
of those who are charged with such great and solemn respon- 
sibilities. 

3d. The manner of his death is no small addition to this 
national bereavement, as a cause for mourning and sorrow. 
That such a man in such a position should be stricken down by 
a foul blow of murder — that he should fall by the cowardly 
stroke of an assassin — that our own country should produce a 
company of hardened wretches, capable of so infamous a con- 
spiracy, cannot but fill the mind with horror as well as grief. 
When we remember too that the blow was aimed not at him 
personally, but at the nation's life, it not only aggravates the 
crime, but overwhelms the heart with mingled anguish and de- 
testation of the deed. It was not at Abraham Lincoln that 
the stroke Avas aimed, but at the authority and life of the na- 
tion, as represented in him. 

There is a sense in Avhich his name will justly go down to 
posterity as a martyr to his country. According to the V/^hole 
theory and foundation of all free government, the will of the 
majority, constitutionally expressed, is the will of the nation 
for all governmental purposes. No fact in human history is 
more clearly established than this, that he represented the will 
of the majority of this nation in its sovereign capacity. The 
will of the majority, in strict conformity with the provisions of 
law, was not only expressed in his first election to office, but 
the principles of his administration and his acts were endorsed 
and ratified by an increased majority in his re-election. If a 
majority is not to rule, then tell me wlio is? He was called 
by the sovereign voice of the people to give efficiency to the 



n 

nation's will in the exercise of its high prerogative of govern- 
ment. He was honestly discharging- that duty. Because he 
was honestly and faithfully executing the nation's will he was 
stricken down. The quarrel was not with him personally, but 
with the principle which he represented and which the sove- 
reign voice of the nation decreed. The blow was aimed at the 
nation's life, and he, as its representative, fell the martyred 
victim. 

In the absence of positive ]3roof it is not for me to charge 
complicity with the deed upon the leaders of the rebellion. 
Still it is but in keeping with the attempt to destroy the un- 
offending inhabitants of populous cities by fire and imported 
pestilence. It is but in keeping with the cool, deliberate starv- 
ing of thousands of disarmed prisoners of war. It was the 
culminating point of a most determined and relentless war 
upon the natit)n's authority. If it had been within its power, 
the spirit which assassinated him would have plunged the dag- 
ger into the nation's heart and poured out the nation's life- 
blood. That we should ha^^ fallen upon times when such a 
crime was possible in thi's free" nation — when such a war could 
be waged against a nation's life, cannot but fill every loyal 
and well-disposed mind with profound gloom and mourning. 

Surely one of the lessons which. God is grinding into the 
nation's conscience, is the solemn responsibility of the Ameri- 
can people to the government which is over them, and the re- 
spect which is due to it from them. The whole management 
of our political affairs has been made so much a matter of 
trickery and trade ; so much a matter of duplicity and decep- 
tion, that the people have lost in a great measure that reveren- 
tial awe which the forms and enactments of just government 
should always inspire, and the salutary restraints which they 



18 

should always impose. The whole idea of government has 
been lowered and degraded. The people have been educated 
to feel less respect for the majesty of laws and rulers than our 
fathers were wont to feel. 

There is a solemn law of Jehovah, enacted in the interests 
of Eternal righteousness, and for the welfare of every nation 
under heaven, which reads on this wise : " Thou shalt not speak 
evil of the ruler of thy people." Here is at least one law of 
Grod which few American citizens comparatively seem to feel 
themselves bound to obey, except when the ruler happens to 
be of their party. 

It is but a few years ago, and within the recollection of all, 
when many of those who now claim to be, par excellence, the 
loyal of the land, did not hesitate, in the pulpit and out of it, 
to preach resistance to the law and defiance to the powers that 
be. If it is treasonable and dangerous now, it was treasonable 
and dangerous then. The truth is, that by our political huck- 
stering, and by our persistent habit of denouncing all our rulers 
indiscriminately as tyrants and l^naves, we have brought our 
government and our rulers into contempt in the eyes of the 
people. And there is but one step between this state of mind 
and overt acts of treason. It requires but a slight occasion to 
call them forth. In this respect we have sown the wind and 
most fearfully have we been reaping the whirlwind as the con- 
sequence. There never was a truer word uttered by any ruler 
than that which was spoken by our present chief magistrate, when 
he said, "the American mind must be educated to feel that treason 
— resistance to government — is the greatest of crimes." Want 
of respect for the majesty of law and for the representatives of 
government, is one of the great sins of this nation. I speak not 
of one party, but of all parties. It is one of the great sins of this 



19 

nation — a sin which must sooner or later bring its own punish- 
ment with it in the anarchy 'and confusion which it will inevita- 
bly work in the bosom of society. My mind is deeply impress- 
ed with the conviction, that one of the lessons which God, by 
his judgments, is grinding into the conscience of this nation, is 
a solemn reverence for constituted authority, as the representa- 
tive and the delegated minister of his own divine prerogative 
of executing justice on earth. 

4th. The event which calls us together to-day is an occasion 
for sorrow and mourning in view of the present circumstances 
of the country, and the difficulties which still lie in. the way of 
the nation's future. I take it as no small praise to him who 
has fallen, and no slight proof of his honesty and integrity of 
heart, that the very people who had just been in armed rebel- 
lion against the Government, as they were compelled to yield 
to rightful authority, felt that his death to them was a great 
calamity. The moment forcible resistance ceased, and they 
were brought powerless before the vindicated majesty of the 
law, there was no man living to whose tender mercies they 
would sooner have committed what remained of life and for- 
tune than to his. And the foreign enemies of our country, 
who for four years have been vilifying and denouncing him 
and his administration, arc now, in his uprightness of charac- 
ter, his kindness of heart, his unswerving truthfulness, his unim- 
peachable sincerity, and his conciliatory spirit, able to discern 
those qualifications which would eminently have fitted him to 
bring about a reconciliation, and a restoration of social order. 
The loss of such a man at such a time cannot but be felt by 
every right-minded person to be a national calamity. The 
permitting of him to be thus suddenly taken away is one of 
those mysterious dispensations of Providence to which it be- 
comes us to bow in submission but with penitent and sorrow- 
ful hearts. 



20 

Then, too, in regard to that race who by the events of the 
war are now released from bondage. Whatever view men 
may take of the complex questions involved in fh'e controver- 
sies which preceded the rebellion, taking the situation as it 
now is, no man in his sobei; mind can think that it would be 
either just to them or conducive to tlie future peace and wel- 
fare of the country, that slavery should be reinstated. If it is 
not to be reinstated, then here are four millions of poor, help- 
less and dependent creatures, who have a claim upon us that 
the shield of the nation and the protection of the law shall be 
thrown around them. In the present state of affairsj the national 
government is necessarily charged with this solemn responsi- 
bility, a responsibility from which it cannot escape without 
proving recreant to all moral obligations. To whom then, I 
ask, in all this land would that race, or the nation at large, 
sooner have had that high and sacred trust committed, than to 
him whose large heart and kind disposition ever made him the 
friend of the oppressed. 

From all these considerations, the event which calls us 
together to-day is an occasion for sorrow and mourning to 
the nation . Plumanly speaking, the only thought which can 
reconcile us to it is, that in the eye of Infinite Wisdom, perhaps, 
the demands of justice and the future welfare of the Eepublic 
requires a stern work of retribution to be performed upon the 
guilty leaders of the rebellion, for which, by his conciliatory 
spirit, by his generous heart, and by his sympathetic nature, he 
was unfitted. 

At least God is teaching us to cease to put our trust in 
man, but to commit all our interests, and the nation's destiny, 
into the liands of that just and merciful Being who ordains 
his own counsels, and who executes by whatever agencies it 
pleases him, his own eternal purposes. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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